Singapore quits SARS work, China goes on
( 2003-09-25 09:11) (China Daily)
A Singaporean research institute linked to the world's most recent SARS case
will abandon its work on the coronavirus. But Chinese scientists will continue
their work on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) despite the decision
overseas, an official said Wednesday.
A healthcare worker
treats a 'SARS' patient in an anti-SARS drill at Zhongshan No 3
Hospital in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province
September 24, 2003. The municipal government of Guangzhou recently
required hospitals that have been authorized to accept SARS patients to
carry out tests of their emergency response systems.
[Xinhua] |
The Environmental Health Institute (EHI) of Singapore will stop all its
research work on the SARS virus, China News Service reported Wednesday.
A report by the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health of
Singapore identified an EHI laboratory as the likely source of the SARS virus
that infected a 27-year-old man.
Inappropriate laboratory procedures and a cross-contamination of West Nile
virus samples with the SARS coronavirus in the laboratory led to the infection
of the doctoral student. No evidence could be found of any other source of
infection, the investigation team concluded.
An official from China's Ministry of Science and Technology said China's
research into the SARS virus and other aspects of the disease would not be
affected by the accident in Singapore.
The source of the virus and how it begins to infect human are still unknown.
However, military experts from Beijing have found a group of healthy people who
had antibodies to SARS before it broke out in South China's Guangdong Province,
where the first case was reported last November, China News Service reported
Wednesday.
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